


A Dad of Iron Will

by xxdrarryrebellexx



Series: The Heart of an Iron Dad [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame fix it, But its not like terrible, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Endgame was wrong, Iron Family, Irondad, Multi, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Team Cap Critical, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, and what about it, both Tony and I are just bitter and full of feelings, dont hecking @ me, how do i even tag, i have sO MANY FEELINGS, remember simpler times, so I'm going to fix it, we're going back to that, when avengers fics were just everyone living in the tower/compound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-03-01 02:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 21,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18791323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxdrarryrebellexx/pseuds/xxdrarryrebellexx
Summary: The snap has left them broken. But Stark seems to be the same as ever. Still surrounded by the ones he loves.They don't know what he's lost and he's not sure he wants to tell them, but you'll be damn sure he'll get it back.[ minor endgame spoilers but not canon compliant ]





	1. proløgue

**Author's Note:**

> this fic doesn't contain spoilers until approximately chapter 8 cause before then i was working on speculation, comics, trailers and my own personal ideas/biases

The compound is quiet when Tony and Nebula finally force the Benatar to the ground. They've been jumping galaxies to make it back here. To fix everything. The surviving Avengers are nowhere to be found out on the lawn and he wonders who they lost down here. Who's just missing and who's  _gone?_

 

" _Tony_!"

 

He looks up and some part of him relaxes because Pepper is okay, and Rhodey is okay, and even Happy is standing there with unshed tears in his eyes, but then he thinks about who's not here and a part of him breaks when he looks them in the eyes.

Pepper wraps him in her arms and squeezes like she has to prove to herself it's really him. Nebula introduces herself and Rhodey grips Tony's shoulder tight before showing her to what's left of her team. Her family. When Pepper finally lets him go, he kisses her cheek but doesn't look at her. He gives Happy a firm pat on the back and he goes to the only place he knows will keep his hands busier than his mind.

 

"I'll be in the lab."

 

He blasts ACDC and tinkers with whatever he can find. Tony could never stand the quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i will say now that this fic won't be following the movie (cause time travel is a dumb cheap trick and i don't like it as a easy writing tool) also shit didn't make sense in some cases
> 
> this fic will be more Endgame Adjacent where the stuff i liked im gonna keep and the other shit i wont cause thats what fanfic is  
> consider this a fix it & fuck you to Avengers: Endgame all in one
> 
> hope you enjoy it  
> love y'all 3000 💕
> 
> \-- luci xoxo


	2. øne

Tony hasn't slept in days.

The bags under his eyes are dark purple bruises smudged there like a second grader doing an art project. He thinks about the dream he had before all this, about having a kid.  _Another kid,_ his brain supplies. His head thunks to the desk and his eyes flutter closed for what feels like the third time.

_"Mr. Stark...I don't feel so good."_

His eyes snap open. He's running on caffeine patches and nightmares, but he pushes himself back up into a sitting position and wedges a screwdriver back into the slot he was working on before he nodded off.

 

" **Boss** ," calls FRIDAY as she lowers the volume on his speakers. " **Ms. Potts would like for me to remind you that you are needed in conference room 4**."

 

"Yeah. Thanks Fri, I'll be right there."

When he still doesn't seem to have made any move to just get up and get going, Rhodey is walking into the lab in a t-shirt and jeans, his leg braces creaking as he makes his way to Tony's side.

"Hey, Platypus," Tony says rubbing at his eyes with the palms of his hands. They come away wet but he doesn't remember crying. "I was just on my way up."

 

"Don't worry about it. No one else was really feeling up to it either," Rhodey says, sitting on one of the metal stools next to Tony. They both know it's a lie. "We were hoping you had an idea on where to start."

Tony shakes his head and let's his eyes fall closed, propping himself against Rhodey's shoulder.

_"Mr. Stark, I don't know what's happening!"_

He snaps his eyes open again, but he isn't on Titan. His head is still resting on his best friend's shoulder. He clears his throat.

"I just got back; how would I know?"

 

"You're a genius, remember." Rhodey hopes it'll pull a laugh or a chuckle or a smile or  _something_  out of him. It doesn't. He huffs out a breath of his own. "You know the kid hates when you blamed yourself."

 

_"I'm sorry."_

 

"Well he's not here is he? And that's  _my_  fault. We should have taken care of Thanos before now. I should have known what to do. I—" he says, stopping to shake his head against his friend, who had now thrown an arm around his shoulders. "Do you know the kid apologized? What did he have to be sorry for? For d-dying?" The word tastes like bile in his mouth but he forces it out anyway.

 

"For leaving you," Rhodey corrects quietly. "Have you looked at the list of who's missing?"

Tony shakes his head again and Rhodey must see something on his face because he doesn't start listing them off.

"Do you want to know?"

 

"I want a plan. I want something I can  _fix_. I can't—" Tony is looking at his hands in his lap, clenching the left one while he rubs at it with his right. "Pete said that sometimes when you have the powers that you do and don't do anything and bad things happen it's because of you, but we tried as hard as we could, Rhodey, and we  ** _lost_**. And there's still no way I can spin that where I don't feel like it's  _my fault_."

Rhodey's arm tightens around his shoulder and he lays his head on top of Tony's, rubbing his hand up and down Tony's arm.

"You really shouldn't be holed up down here, alone, Tones. C'mon. Let's at least get some food in you."

 

"Not hungry."

 

"When's the last time you ate? Or slept?"

 

"Einstein only slept—"

 

"Three hours a year. Yeah, you keep telling me. But you, my friend, are  _not_  Einstein.  _You_  have people who care about you too much to let you isolate yourself that way."

 

"Fair enough," says Tony, pushing himself into a sitting position again. "Thanks for the talk, Honeybear. Still not hungry."

 

"Hey, FRIDAY. When's the last time Tony ate?"

 

"You don't have to answer that, Fr—"

 

" **Boss has not eaten in approximately 26 hours and counting**."

 

"Better than I thought, but you're still eating," Rhodey says, leaving no room for discussion as he stands up, pulling Tony with him. " _Now_."

When the doors of the lab are behind him and Rhodey asks nicely for FRIDAY to keep them locked until Tony has eaten something and slept for more than 10 minutes, Tony has to work to keep his breathing even. He hasn't been out of the lab for anything other than bathroom breaks since he's gotten back. It's farthest from the alcohol cabinet and it keeps him busy.

He tried sleeping with Pepper his first night back and woke up from a nightmare only to immediately have an anxiety attack. She held him as tight as possible because the pressure helped. He spent the night redesigning and trying to fabricate a weighted blanket up to Stark Standards.

It still hadn't helped him sleep.

"Tony?" Pepper's voice is concerned but she knows better than to run over to him. Immediate movements have him on edge and the lack of music outside of the lab reminds him of the silence after everyone had—

 

"Hey, Pep." He walks over to her and kisses her cheek, running a hand through her hair to ground himself. "What no ponytail? Are you off today?"

 

"It's Sunday," she reminds him softly and he tries not to look surprised.

 

"Sunday?"

 

"Yeah. Date night, remember?" she jokes, but he's still focused on the fact that it was Sunday again. They had landed on a Sunday. Had it really been a week? He sucks in a breath. He needs to plan. He needs to work. He needs—

 

"I— The lab. I need to—"

 

"You need to eat," Rhodey says from behind him and Pepper agrees.

 

"I ordered Thai," Pepper says and he wants to cry because that was Peter's favorite. They'd order in and watch movies or tinker down in the lab or he'd help the kid study for his exams. Pepper steps closer and wraps her arms around him, her face in his neck. "We miss him too. We didn't know what had happened up there. We thought you had both..."

 

"I'm sorry," he says because he doesn't know what else he can say.  _It should have been me. He was just a kid. He should of came home._

 

"I talked to May," she continues, fixing his plate and sitting it in front of him when he plops into a seat, heavily. "She doesn't blame you. You know that right? You did your best. And we're going to figure this out, because that's what you do best. You fix things." She kisses the top of his head. "But you can't do it alone."


	3. twø

Tony had never wanted to be a dad and that kid back in Tennessee hadn't seen him as one, but he could feel the kid growing on him. The same way Peter had. The only difference was Peter had never let him push him away. After the Vulture incident it was as if the kid was gum stuck to his shoe. Even days when he was one word from an anxiety attack, Peter sat there quietly tinkering, someone to listen if Stark needed it. He thinks he still needs it.

Tony hasn't set foot in Rose Hill, Tennessee since the Mandarin incident and though he's called and sent tech and gadgets and any tools he thinks the kid might like, he hasn't talked to him since then. So when he gets a call from an unknown number in the middle of bumbfuck nowhere, he doesn't know what to think.

"This is Stark."

 

"Hey, old man," says a voice. "Papers said you were dead again, thought I'd call and see for myself."

 

"Pretty sure the card said this number was for emergencies only," but Tony still isn't quite sure who he's talking to so he gets FRIDAY started running the information.

 

"The world's ended again. Seemed like an emergency to me. You didn't answer before."

 

"I was in space."

 

"Was it like New York?"

 

"Who is this?" Tony's eyes are narrowed because FRIDAY can only track the number back to a payphone somewhere in Virginia.

 

"I thought you'd've guessed. I mean, we're connected."

 

"Harley!?" Tony said glad that not every kid he knew had been blown to bits, but it didn't take long for his surprise to turn into worry. "Where's your mom? She had my personal number it would have shown on my phone. Where—" He shakes his head. "Why are you in Virginia?"

 

"She dusted," Harley says, his voice small and crackling through the receiver. "Her and Ava. I was gonna catch a bus or something to New York but this is as close as I could get. I didn't know who else to call."

Tony imagines him in the middle of nowhere by himself and his heart aches in a way it hasn't in a couple of hours. He clenches his left hand.

"No, you did the right thing, kid. I'll uh- I'll send someone over."

 

"Do you need the address or something? 'Cause I'm at a telephone booth. I didn't even know payphones were still a thing."

 

"I have a ping on your location already. I'm sending a jet now. It can fly on its own. Don't break anything."

 

"You'd just fix it. You're going to fix all of this." The boy says it so simply like there is no other answer. Like there's no way Tony could fuck it up. Like it's as obvious as the fact that they're talking to each other. "You're the Mechanic, remember? You work best under pressure with a box of scraps."

They stay on until the jet gets to Harley and Tony leaves the lab to let Pepper or Rhodey at least know whats going on.

Captain America finds him first.

"It's good to see you out of the lab, Tony." He nods at him, but Tony is too high strung to do anything but wring his hands together and look in the direction he needs to go. "There's another meeting today to see if anyone has any new ideas, but mostly we've just been acting as a support team for each other. We want to be that for you too, if you'd let us."

He knows it's the best idea he'll find. It's the easiest way to talk to people other than Rhodey and Pepper again, because even Happy has kept his distance to make sure May is alright and that twists Tony's heart more, makes him remember why he doesn't  _want_  to give in. He and Cap have too much bad blood and not enough time to go over it. Especially when he's lost one kid and has another flying over right now. He walks around him and heads to find someone else. Steve falls into step beside him.

"I know we have a lot to discuss, but the team really needs you right now. We lost friends and family and—" Steve reaches a hand out and Tony snatches away seconds from an anxiety attack. He takes deep breaths to stave it off but it comes anyway.

He stumbles far enough away from Steve where he can sit and gulp in some air without feeling like he's being watched so closely, but when he finally opens his eyes, the super soldier is still standing there.

"Are you alright?"

 

"Oh, so now you care?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. He can see Steve's face pinch like he feels guilty but still wants to argue and Tony shakes his head. "I'm not dead," he says instead of  _I'm okay_  and he knows that that's more telling than anything else. He stands up and continues towards where he knows he'll find Pepper. Steve doesn't follow him.

 

"Hungry?" she asks with a tilt of her head, hair falling out of her ponytail. She stands up from the table, coffee still cradled in her hands as he walks over to her. "I can make you some eggs. Maybe a piece of toast?"

He wants to say no, but the look on her face tells him it wouldn't go over well so he nods and she sits the mug down before getting to work. She makes eggs and sausage and toast. She even brews a fresh pot of coffee.

"What's the occasion?" she asks when he doesn't say anything.

 

"You remember when we were dealing with the Mandarin thing?"

 

"You mean the time I almost had super powers but ran way too hot. You almost died."

 

"No, the other one," he looks at her with what used to be a playful smirk and she smiles at his attempt. He's promised her he would try. She smacks him in the head with a newspaper anyway. "Well I hid out in this shed out in Tennessee and met this kid."

She nods her head.

"Yeah, the company sends a small care package of tech to an address in Roseville?"

 

"Rose Hill."

 

"Yeah, that." At his look she stops and narrows her eyes at him. "Don't tell me the kid is  _yours_."

 

"No. Well kind of? As much as Pete is...was." He sucks in a breath to keep his tears inside. "His name's Harley. I sent the jet to get him. His mom and his little sister both got dusted. He didn't have anywhere else to go."

 

"You're going to figure this out, Tony. And he can stay here as long as he needs." She's rubbing a hand up and down his back comfortingly. He hadn't quite realized how hungry he was until his plate is empty and he reaches in the middle of the table for an apple from the fruit basket.

 

"I think I'm going to go to the next meeting." He isn't looking at her but he knows she's smiling. She loves when he tries. When he doesn't force everyone away. "I can't do anything else. I can't go forward until we figure out a plan. I can't  _fix_  it until I know what's going on."

When he finally looks at her, her smile is soft like she'd missed him. He realizes she probably has. That's she's probably been worried sick. He grabs her hand where it's running through his hair and kisses her palm.

"I'm sorry I made you worry. I won't stay in the lab tonight."

 

"I know you can't help it sometimes," she says softly and bends over to give him her lips to kiss instead of her palm. "You can't sleep. I won't judge you for that, and I'm not going to force you into bed just to watch you toss and turn and scream all night. Loving you means loving all of you and helping you when I know you need it."

 

"I'm a hot mess," he says, his forehead laying against her stomach once she stands back up.

 

"Yeah, but we already knew that," she says fondly, running her hand through his hair again.


	4. thrëe

" **Mr. Rogers would like to alert you that the meeting will be starting soon.** "

 

"Thanks, Fri," Tony says as he sits on the couch. He's staring at a 16 year old Harley Keener and he wants to apologize so bad. He doesn't even know what for.

 

"Are you okay?" asks Harley first, and maybe there really is something to them being connected cause the kid could always see right through him.

 

"Am I ever?" Tony tosses back, rubbing his palms into his eyes. Harley shrugs with a small smile on his face.

 

"I think you get by alright, considering."

Tony snorts a laugh and reaches over to ruffle the kids hair. The teasing helps him stand. Reminds him what he's fighting for.

"There's some video games and a couple different consoles over there. Pep says you can stay as long as you want, so make yourself at home. In the meantime, Captain America is requesting my presence, apparently."

 

"I didn't know you played video games," the kid says reaching over to set one up.

 

"I don't." Tony leaves before anymore questions or comments can be aimed at him and heads to conference room 4 where they've been having these meetings for the last week or so since he's been back. He sits in the chair closest to the door but most of them turn to look at him when he comes in. He hasn't talked to anyone other than Steve since he got back. He doesn't think he can.

They go around in a circle and talk about who they've lost. What they wished they'd told them before. Tony thinks it's more for his benefit than anyone else's to get him caught up on everyone who's missing. As if he can't feel the empty spaces for himself. When it's his turn to speak he opens his mouth but he can't force any words out so he clamps it shut and turns to look out the window. He can hear someone scoff closer to the front.

No one has any ideas about how to get them back.

The routine is the same for the next couple of days. Tony has FRIDAY lock him out of the lab until he makes some kind of progress with the team or an idea on how to move forward. Needless to say he doesn't. He plays Mario Kart with Harley until it hurts too much to look at where Peter has imprinted his name in the leaders board. He goes to business meetings with Pepper and what's left of the Stark Industries board of directors. He tries to go to the Avengers support group. He never talks.

Today is no different. He sits. He listens. He mourns in silence. By the last five minutes he isn't even listening. He's trying not to think about the fact that it's Saturday or that tomorrow will be another Sunday back on Earth without a plan and without Peter.

_"I don't wanna go...I don't wanna go. Please..."_

When the room quiets around him he looks away from the window on the side of the room that gives a view out onto the grounds, and instead looks towards the faces that all seem to be on edge. When he checks his watch they still have a few minutes left.

"Did I miss something?" Tony asked, one eyebrow raised.

 

"See!" yelled Clint, fuming. "He doesn't even want to be here."

 

"No, I really don't, but I thought one of you might have an idea on how to reverse this."

Going by Clint's reaction, this isn't the right thing to say. He stands up, storming over to Tony and Rhodey has to pull him back.

"Don't swarm him!" Rhodey calls, because he knows his best friend well enough to know that he'll jet if people get too close.

 

"I'm tired of walking on eggshells around him. What does he have to mourn? We've all lost friends, but everyone he loves is still here!"

 

"Clint, take a step back," Steve says, and he's still keeping his own distance.

 

"Tony Stark comes out of something unscathed, yet again."

 

"Back off, Clint," Natasha orders when she sees Tony start to tremble.

 

"My family is  _gone_ , Nat. I've lost my wife. My  _kids_."

 

"So did  _I_!" Tony snapped. The room is cloaked in silence but he doesn't stop. He looks out the window again. his voice is calm. "FRIDAY pull up file SPM-017."  
  


" **Opening the Put-It-On-The-Fridge Protocol.** "

He closes his eyes when the first video plays.

_"Hey, Mr. Stark! I had an idea about that problem you were having with the suits being able to do emergency rescue!" Peter was happily walking into the lab, tossing his book bag onto one of the tables and petting DUM-E._

 

_"Well, let me hear it, kiddo."_

 

_"You could make smaller bots to like go through and take stock of the area, ya know? Like they use the mini cameras before they start surgeries."_

 

_"That's actually a great idea. They'd be good for bomb removal too."_

 

_"And hazardous waste in vents and stuff!"_

 

_"Good job, kid."_

 

_"Thanks."_

Tony finally looks up and catches sight of Peter's smile before the next video starts.

_"May says report cards came out to day," Tony said as soon as Peter walked into the lab. The boy groaned dramatically, his head thrown back._

 

_"Stop talking to my aunt." Peter was pouting and Tony reached over to ruffle his hair._

 

_"C'mon, lets see the grades, bambino."_

_Peter pulled out a folder from his book bag and sat it on the desk next to his mentor. He knew Tony didn't like to be handed things. Tony narrowed his eyes before picking up the large yellow envelope and flicking the tab on the end. When he pulled out the paper and let his eyes roam over it, they got large._

_"Pete, you got all A's."_

 

_"There's that one A minus in PE, but only because I couldn't climb the rope as fast as everyone else."_

_Tony knew he could, but he also knew what he meant and he nodded with a small smile on his face. He raised an arm._

_"C'mere, kid."_

_Peter smiled broadly before rushing over and wrapping his arms around Tony's torso as the man tightened his arm around his shoulders and continued to look at the report card. When they pulled away he started talking again._

_"I'm really proud of you. I'm glad that after the incident with your chemistry project and you doing extra curriculars instead of sleeping, that talk we had really helped."_

 

_"_ _Yeah, I'm sorry I worried you, Mr. Stark."_

 

_"It's fine, kid. It's my job to be worried about you." Tony stood up, the paper still in his hand. "Now, I'm going to make a copy of this and hang it on the fridge for Pep to see when she gets back."_

_Peter's blush went down his neck, but his smile was blinding._

The next video was a couple of weeks before the attack.

_"It isn't that bad, Mr. Stark, I promise. It's okay!"_

 

_"You got stabbed, Peter. What part of that is okay?" Tony's voice shook as his eyes looked back and forth between Peter's before the boy broke eye contact._

 

_"_ _It's not okay, b-but the wound's already closing," his voice got softer,"and I mean, I've been through worse."_

 

_"That doesn't mean you should have to keep putting yourself on the line like that, kid." Tony had a hand on Peter's shoulder as he led him to the medbay in full Spider-Man regalia to get checked up on._

 

_"But if I have these powers and don't do anything..."_

 

_"I know, Pete, but it's not your fault. None of that was your fault. Now, c'mon," he said once they were close enough to medbay, "mask on."_

 

_"Thanks, Tony."_

The video switches again to find Tony under a pile of suit parts, picking himself out of it.

_"DUM-E, I swear to God if you spray me with that fire extinguisher you're going in the corner again!"_

_The bot beeped at him as Peter made his way into the lab. When he saw Tony he sprinted over and started lifting up the heavy plates of metal, sitting them off to the side without breaking a sweat. It look like he could have flicked them off with one finger if he wanted._

_"Dad!? Are you okay?"_

 

_"Pete?" Tony said brushing himself off. "Yeah, I'm good, kid. Suit test malfunction. That's not important, I'll fix it. But first," he said with a soft look, "let's talk about this calling me Dad thing..."_

 

_"Oh god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean— It's not that— It's just—"_

 

_"It's okay," said Tony making his way over to a table and sitting down, turning to face the kid. "Better than okay, really...I didn't know you thought of me that way. I just never uh— never thought I'd make a good Dad."_

 

_"What!? You make the best dad! You always check up on me and help me with my homework and projects and you and Pepper make sure I've eaten enough even with my metabolism being like crazy fast and when I spend the night and have nightmares you sing to me and help me fall back asleep." Peter looked embarrassed to be admitting all that, but he had done it because it was the truth and he knew it was what Tony needed. Tony wouldn't admit he was crying, but Peter was hugging him anyway. "I didn't mean to make you cry, I'm sorry— I didn't..."_

 

_"Thanks, Peter."_

 

_"Anytime, Dad."_

The videos stops, but Tony is stuck staring at the table. Anywhere but his kids face.

"They said Spiderman was with you when the ship went up," Steve says quietly, piecing it together.

 

"FRIDAY play Iron Man audio recording: Titan," Tony says, because he's said it so many times that it's almost instinct. To hear his kid's voice. Because the happy memories are too happy and he won't let himself be happier until Peter is back and asking inane science questions or begging for Ned to come over and build Legos. He's whispering now. "He has this crazy sixth sense that senses danger. He— uh...he could feel it coming, but I couldn't... _God_." Tony puts his head in his hands as the audio started.

 _"Mr. Stark? I don't feel so good."_ The sound of Peter's feet stumbling is loud in the silence of the room.

 

_"You're alright," said Tony trying to keep himself calm. Keep the kid calm. Safe._

 

_"I don't— I don't know what's happening...I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go. Mr. Stark, please. I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go."_

The sound of them falling is crushing Tony's heart, but he knows what comes next.

_"I'm sorry," Peter said, his voice soft._

Tony feels his chest constrict and he stands up, fumbling away from the chair he's just vacated. His breathing is labored and it feels like it's being wrenched from his chest.

"Tony, I need you to look at me." And that's Rhodey's voice.

 

"I'm..." he sucks in a breath, "all good, Honeybear." He sucks in another, keeping a firm hand on the floor where he's on his knees, another hand on the wall beside him. "Promise."

 

"Tones, c'mon let's get you some water," Rhodey tries to help his friend up, but the other man merely shrugs him off and tries to get up on his own. He stumbles a few times before getting up and leaning heavily against the wall forcing breath in and out of his lungs.

 

"I can get it myself. I can handle an anxiety attack. Been dealing with them for years. Flew myself into a wormhole strapped to a nuke. Built a robot AI that turned against me. Almost got murdered by one of my closest friends. Lost my kid on an alien planet with no back-up..." He shrugs. "It happens, but Tony Stark always comes out unscathed, right?" He leaves before anyone can say anything else.

When he makes it back to his corner of the compound, Harley is sitting at the table eating a sandwich, but he points to the counter where there's a glass of water sitting.

"The voice in the sky said you might need it," he says shrugging and Tony walks over, gulps it down and thanks the teen with a ruffle of his hair.

 

"Her names FRIDAY. She's an AI and she controls the parts of the building where I usually go. JOCASTA covers everywhere else."

 

"Hm," says Harley. "How does it work?"

Ultimately the talking about things he knows and understands is what calms his heart and stops it from beating right out of him.


	5. føur

Tony is showing Harley how to upgrade the suit using materials found in places other than a junky old shed when he starts.

"Can I ask about it?" Harley asks after they've been tinkering for a while and he's boosted the power cells on at least 2 of Tony's newer suits.

 

"How could I stop you?" Tony isn't looking at him. He's welding something together before poking at it with an iron hand and watching it fall apart again.

 

"After you left," starts the boy instead, "I started having these really bad nightmares about the guy that tried to kidnap me, ya know? Used me as leverage? And then when I would go to school and people stood too close to me I'd get really violent. Then I'd start feeling like I couldn't breathe. The teachers started calling my mom. And she put me in therapy for a bit and I mean, it helped. I can talk about it now, but I still get kinda jumpy whenever people I don't know get too close." He shakes his head as if he got off topic. "What I'm trying to say is, I know how it feels now. When people push your buttons without meaning to and I don't want to do that to you. I'm sorry I did it before."

Tony shakes his head and places a hand on the boys shoulder.

"No hard feelings, kid. I knew you didn't mean it, we're connected, remember?"

Harley snorted a laugh, but Tony could see that a weight was lifted from his shoulders.

Rhodey comes in later with a plate full of sandwiches.

"Pep sent me bearing gifts," he starts before seeing the blond teen. "Uh..hi?"

 

"What's up?" Harley said bobbing his head, but not lifting it up any further from where he's trying to burn a few wires together without burning himself.

 

"Rhodey, this is Harley," Tony says introducing them."He helped me lay low during the whole Mandarin thing. Harley, this is Colonel James Rhodes, he wears the War Machine armor."

 

"Iron Patriot was a cooler name."

 

"I will weld your mouth shut."

Harley's grin is broad and daring as he holds out the welding iron for Tony to take. Rhodey laughs at that and looks happy that Tony isn't completely alone in the lab anymore.

"Nice to meet you, Harley."

 

"You too, Colonel," he says, back to working on the wiring.

 

"Rhodey is fine."

 

"Or Honeybear," Tony adds. "He loves that one."

 

"It's better than platypus," Rhodey concedes with a shrug of his shoulders and Harley actually guffaws at that one.

Tony smiles sadly at the kid because it's nice to have company, but he wishes it didn't have to be because they had both lost people they love. He wishes Harley could meet Peter and immediately looks back down at his work to quiet the thought before it gets too loud.

" **Clint Barton is in the vents closest to your quarters, Boss. I believe he wishes to apologize.** "

 

"Tell him he can shove it up his ass."

Rhodey's voice doesn't hold much weight when he tells Tony to _"At least hear him out,"_ which lets Tony know that he doesn't approve either.

"I don't want to hear his apology. I get it, we're in mourning. He's grieving. Anger is a step in that process. Doesn't mean I have to talk him through it."

Tony can see the gears turning in Harley's head before he starts to notice the high school text books and the fact that Tony actually had lab equipment to fit him without being too baggy. The kid doesn't ask, just works a bit harder.

Tony turns to Rhodey.

"Go handle, Barton. I'm fine. Harley will report any attempts to panic or attack." Tony looks at him. "Ain't that right, kid?"

 

"Definitely, old man. Can't let your heart conk out without getting into your will first."

 

"What makes you assume you aren't already in it?"

And that is what effectively freezes him in his seat. Harley drops the tools and looks up at Tony with a look that clearly screams how much that means to him and the man just shrugs, looking back down at his hands. Rhodey looks between them before he leaves the plate of sandwiches on the table and goes to get Clint after FRIDAY calls down to alert them again.

"Never thought I'd be a dad 'til I got myself a coupla kids." Tony's voice is quiet, but he's talking to Harley. He just doesn't trust his voice to be much louder yet.

 

"You never came back...I thought you were just like him."

 

"My old man, wasn't always the best when it came to family stuff either," says Tony sadly. "And that's not an excuse. I just didn't want to impose on your life any more than I already had especially considering I had no clue what I was doing and I didn't want to fuck you up somehow, cause the world knows I've done enough of that to last a lifetime." Tony shrugs, "I don't really know what I wanted, but I kept in touch with your mom, sent whatever bits I thought you'd be interested in. She kept me up to date on your grades and the bullying. She never told me about the therapy."

"She probably didn't want you to pay for it like I'm some kind of charity case." Harley's voice is hard like he wants to leap up and run until he can't move his legs anymore.

 

"You aren't. You don't need charity, kid, especially not from me. You saved  _my_  life, the least I can do is give  _you_  some tools and get you into a good school."

 

"A good school? You mean like college?" Harley shakes his head. "I'm working at the local hardware store and my mom was still at the diner before all this happened. I can't pay for college."

 

"I can. Wherever you want to go. Though, if you go to MIT, I'd have to pay a little bit less."

 

"Tony, I couldn't—"

 

"You're a smart kid, Harley. You've always been a smart kid. Let me do this for you."

Harley nodded then looked around at all the pieces of Peter Parker left in the lab.

"So this other guy...he cool?"

 

"Huge nerd," Tony says jokingly but honest.

 

"Good, we need someone who can keep up with us." He picks up a sandwich. "You think Ava and my mom would like him?"

 

"Yeah," Tony said, and his voice is barely above a whisper, but Harley nods like he's heard him and takes a bite then offers the plate to Tony.

 

"Work'll still be here after you eat, old man. You're gonna get'em back."


	6. fıvë

_The planet is decimated. No one is left. Tony is standing over a pile of ashes. Somehow he knows it's Pepper. He tried to save the universe and lost again and now everyone he cares about is gone. The grip on his arm is strong and he wants to snatch away because it has to be Thanos. He's lost and now the mad titan is going to kill him too._

Then he opens his eyes.

Pepper has a hand wrapped around his bicep, the other alternating between massaging his scalp and rubbing up and down his back.

"You're okay, babe. I'm right here. We're okay."

Tony rolls over at the sound of her voice to where she's sitting on the side of the bed and lays his head in her lap, letting her continue to pet him comfortingly.

"Do you really think..." he clears his throat. "Do you really think I can fix all of this? Bring back half the population?"

 

"I think," she starts softly, a hand carding through his hair, "that you will do anything for the people you care about. And you care about people with all that you have, Tony. So I think you'll do whatever it takes and I'm sure that'll be more than enough."

He falls back asleep with her hands massaging his scalp and when he wakes up again, she's gone to work.

 

_* * *_

 

Clint corners him the next time he goes to a meeting. He expects it so he doesn't make any moves to leave. Expecting it is also what stops him from breaking Clint's hand when he taps his shoulder.

"I have this thing with the touching—" Tony starts calmly and almost immediately Clint snatches his hands away and he holds them up in semblance of surrender. When he drops them again, they fidget as if he wants to sign his apologies rather than speak them. Tony wonders if it would mean more if he did.

They stand in each other's space for a moment longer before Tony really does have to step back to stop himself from hyperventilating.

"I'm sorry." Clint is looking at the floor with his brow furrowed as he says it. "I shouldn't have assumed. I just—"

 

"Don't worry about it, Barton," Tony says looking behind the other man towards the door. "If I hadn't known about your family and you had come back looking so distressed I probably would have reacted the same way."

 

"But you wouldn't have," Clint argues finally making eye contact with him. "Cause you  _act_  like an ass and as much as we all like to joke about it, we know you aren't one. You care about all of us. You care about other  _people_  so much, Tony. I know it was you who sent the new hearing aids to my house for Christmas last year. And you sent gifts for Laura and the kids. You didn't have to. Even now you've been coming to all of these meetings and listening to us and patting us on the back even when you don't say anything just so we'll feel better and I treated you like a complete  _ass_."

Tony shook his head.

"You guys have lost a lot," Tony says."Pete wasn't even my kid. It's— It's not okay. But it's  _fine_.  _We're_  fine, Barton."

 

"You can hit me if you want..." Clint says as if he's resigned to it and Tony shakes his head.

 

"That's not gonna bring them back. And it definitely won't make me feel any better. You're hurting too, I get it. Apology accepted." Tony motions to the door. "May I?"

Clint moves out of the way and he shuffles his weight from foot to foot in thought before following Tony. He doesn't reach out for him this time, but he still turns around all the same.

"If you ever want to...uh talk about it, one dad to another, I'm here."

Tony nods at him but doesn't say anything else before walking to his own part of the compound.

"Wanna go to the garage?" Harley says when he walks in, because he's much better at mechanics than chemistry and Tony agrees easily.

 

"Lunch first, but sure, kid. I can show you how to change the T-stat."

 

"I know how to change a T-stat," the teen says with his chest puffed out as he jumps off the couch and follows Tony into the kitchen.

 

"Oh, yeah?" Tony asks with a grin, pulling out ingredients to make homemade pizza. "Then what does T-stat stand for?"

 

"Uhhh...tire statistics?" Harley replies uncertainly. He sits at one of the counter seats to watch Tony lay out all the different cheeses.

 

"It actually stands for Thermostat, but nice job thinking on the fly." He puts a fist up and chuckles when Harley bumps it happily.

 

"So, what's all this?" He says still smiling but actively changing the subject by pointing all encompassing towards all the different things on the counter.

 

"This is lunch, country boy. Watch and learn." Tony is motioning for him to come around the counter and when he does, the man nudges him with an elbow and starts showing him how to prepare the pre-made dough after having FRIDAY turn on the oven. They toss on sauce and cheese and meats and seasonings and Tony's heart doesn't seem so cold and barren.

 

"So this kid," starts Harley trying not to look as uncomfortable and nervous as he really is, "He yours?"

 

"As much as you are," deflects Tony putting the food in the oven.

 

"Oh...er, cool. I've always wanted a brother."

Harley isn't looking at him when he talks again but Tony feels himself smiling all the same. He ruffles the boys hair with wet cheeks, but he doesn't realize he's been crying until later.

When the pizzas are done, and they've had their fill, they start the walk through the compound together in companionable silence. Tony doesn't know what to say and it doesn't seem like Harley minds too much either. They make it to the garage in not quite so depressed spirits, which is of course when Steve Rogers decides to show his face from behind his motorcycle.

Unlike Tony though, Harley keeps walking towards the car they've been working with on-and-off since he's gotten to New York without even a second glance at Captain America.

"C'mon, old man, deep breaths," he says from across the room and Tony notices as he sucks in a burning gulp of air into his lungs that he hasn't been breathing. He shakes his head before following Harley to the car, talking himself through the basic steps of how to change a thermostat.

When Steve leaves to give them privacy he doesn't even notice.


	7. sïx

It's been a month since Tony has gotten back and it's just his luck that two new heroes have arrived on the lawn.

Tony isn't sure which of them shows up first. He thinks maybe it's Scott Lang, the Antman, he corrects and even that is a little too close to comfort. But maybe that's only because the woman, she introduces herself as Carol, has had to fly all the way across the galaxy.

There's no time to have a feelings meeting when they finally have a way to start figuring this thing out. Tony wants to cry. He doesn't. He watches them discuss Thanos. Running in without a plan. Without anything more than anger and a strong will, but that's what they had last time and it didn't end so well.

"If we do this," Bruce says and Tony can see his hands trembling, "how do we know it's going to end any differently than it did before?"

Tony wants to shout his agreement, but he still hasn't figured out how to talk around more than a few people at a time again. Pepper and Rhodey say it's part of the PTSD and he knows that, so he's working through it. Trying not to be too upset about it, but he feels angry at the way no one seems to take Bruce's cautiousness seriously.

"Because before, you didn't have  _me_." Carol's voice is clear and confident when she speaks and it isn't the first time he's wanted to punch a blonde in their perfect little teeth. He looks away with his brows furrowed and knows that Rhodey sees him.

 

"Hey, new girl?" Rhodey's body language is defensive. Protective. Because she doesn't know them but here she is declaring things as if she's the end all be all of the universe, but where was she when the universe was falling apart at the seams. "Everybody in this room is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?"

Tony knows there's a reason Rhodey's been his best friend this long.

 

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe," Carol starts somewhat passively. "And unfortunately they didn't have you guys."

Tony wants to ask how that's their fault when they're doing this for all of the universe even if  _he's_  doing this for his kid. For Peter. He wants to say that if she's so fucking good at what she does why couldn't she have helped save everyone before she fucked off to who knows where. Instead he leaves when Thor moves to stand. He has nothing against the man. It's been years since that first meeting in the forest but something about getting your ass handed to you by a Titan keeps you from stepping too close to a God. He has a panic attack before he reaches his quarters and Rhodey comes to find him.

"You're benched this time, big guy."

 

"I don't think I could look at Point Break without dropping dead, if I'm being honest with you, Platypus."

Rhodey sits next to him on the floor, their backs against the wall. His legs creak as he bends to get down there.

"I could upgrade those. It'll be a more comfortable fit," says Tony when he can breathe a bit better. "We could outfit them to the nerves better. It'd be like— like your leg, but  _better_. Me and Pete were looking into it before..." He's clenching his left hand when Rhodey nudges him.

 

"Sore?"

 

"Yeah." He shakes his head and clenches his fist again. "Something like that"

 

"Maybe lay off all the garage stuff for a bit. Give the muscles time to relax."

 

"Learn that in therapy, did you?"

 

"Actually, yeah, I did," says Rhodey pulling himself up then reaching out a hand to pull Tony with him. "C'mon,  _Sweet Pea_ , let's get some food in you."

 

"Thanks,  _Honeybear._ And don't think I didn't notice you laying into Danvers back there."

Rhodey snorts.

"We barely know her and she just comes off so pretentious. Apparently she used to be a fighter pilot back in the day. Guess what her call was."

 

"Can't be worse than the  _Iron Patriot._ "

 

"That's a matter of opinion, I guess."

 

"What was it?" he asks laughing.

 

"Avenger."

 

" _No_ ," Tony responds shocked. He shakes his head while giving a dry laugh. "That damn, Fury."

Rhodey chuckles his agreement then leans closer as if he's sharing a secret.

"And you should have seen her. After you left, Thor summoned his ax standing right in front of her and she didn't even flinch."

 

"Remember when the hardest thing we had to face was terrorists?" Tony says more to himself but Rhodey has an arm around his shoulders in comfort anyway.

 

"Remember when you were just a man in a can?" his best friend jokes.

 

"I'm still just a man in a can," he laughs.

 

"We both are."

 

"You ever think we're out of our element? I mean, fighting aliens? Rhodes, we gave up thinking they existed back in college! Now they're like just another damn Tuesday."

 

"I don't know what to think, Tony. But we have more information now and I know you well enough to know that that's usually all you need to think of a plan."

 

"I wouldn't call it a plan..." Tony says with a shrug, but he's smiling and it's one of the rare genuine smiles that Rhodey's had to fight tooth-and-nail for since his best friend landed an alien spaceship in their backyard. They're in the kitchen now, looking for anything that isn't take out or pizza.

 

"You know," starts Rhodey in his serious yet joking voice as he's pulling out the stuff to make a couple of sandwiches, "if we hadn't already eloped in Vegas back in '89, I'd marry you."

 

"Oh, god," his friend says, eyes wide as he looks over at Rhodey. "Don't tell Pep."

 

"Don't tell Pep what?" asks the woman herself stepping out of their bedroom, still trying to fix her hair into a proper up-do. Tony motions her over and does it himself, placing a kiss on her cheek.

 

"Uh, nothing. Right, Honeybear? Where's Harley?"

 

"Still asleep. He has the room next to Peter's. His pride finally let him get off of the couch for a full night's rest." She narrows her eyes as she sits next to him. "Now, don't tell me what, Rhodey?"

 

"Tony and I are married," he said before biting into half a sandwich, sliding the other half over to Tony who picks it up and takes a bite before pointing it accusingly at his friend.

 

"That's the opposite of not telling, Platypus."

 

"Two husband's for the price of one," Pepper says, accepting a bite from Rhodey's half sandwich when he offers. "At least one of you is competent."

The three of them have been together long enough that she can't see how it wouldn't work. Of course they'll have to have a real conversation about it before wedding day and she still smacks Tony on the back of the head for not telling her,  _especially_  before proposing, but she isn't surprised. Tony and Rhodey were a package deal long before she met either of them. She thinks maybe this was the natural order of events.

"She means me," says Rhodey only to see his best friend stick his tongue out at him.

 

"I'm off to work," Pepper says. When she stands to leave she kisses them both on the cheek. "We  _will_  discuss this when I get back. Be good boys."

The click of her heels down the hallway and out the door has Tony immediately turning to face Rhodey and snatch his glass of juice from his hand, taking a few sips before handing it back. His friend only rolls his eyes, drinks his juice and places a new glass on the counter full for Tony.

"I think that's as close as a proposal as you're gonna get from Pep on such short notice," Tony says amicably.

 

"It's more than I expected. And here I was thinking I was going to have a divorce on my record," he joked. When he notices Tony's plate is empty, he makes another sandwich, taking a bite and passing it to his friend who eats the rest happily, because from years of college study sessions and decades after, he knows that Tony hates eating alone. It's too much like being without his parents.

 

"You know I couldn't live without you, Honeybear." Tony's grin is sincere and his eyes crinkle with fondness when he looks at Rhodey and he wonders how they've made it this far. He's glad they have.

 

"So you had an idea?" he asks once the plate is cleared again, just to get Tony talking. His face sobers up but the small upward tilt to his lips makes it clear that he's figured out something he was missing. Rhodey leans against the counter with his arms crossed listening to his best friend...his  _husband,_ talk about one of the only things that had brought them both together in the first place. Science.


	8. sevęn

Tony's been in the lab crunching numbers and drawing diagrams and making graphs for days. He's seen Pep and Rhodey enough to not the feel like he's shut himself out, but they know he's busy working on something and not just doing this to avoid thinking so they give him more time to himself. He even remembers to join them for dinner so he can ask Harley about school and bullies and crushes.

After he eats and catches up with everyone, it's easier to push himself from the table to go and crunch more numbers. To figure out the stones.

 

"Tony," Pepper calls from behind him. He stops and turns to face her, his hand on the door. "Don't work yourself too hard."

 

"Wouldn't dream of it, hun," he says walking back over to the table and kisses both her and Rhodey's cheek before ruffling Harley's hair and walking back to the entryway.

He walks out of the room and over to his personal labs in the compound. He hasn't yet called Bruce in to double check his work, but he's almost sure it'll work. He's grinning to himself when the door opens.

"You figured it out."

 

The voice isn't new or loud and when he looks up, he finds Harley standing there with a smirk. He's picked up a wrench or something and started spinning it around in his hands.

 

"What?" asks Tony still thinking about how he can fix things. How he can have Pepper  _and_  Rhodey. Peter  _and_ Harley. How he can get their families back. How he can get everything just right.

 

"You've been working all day but you come to the family rooms for dinner and stuff." The boy shrugs." And you're still there in the morning for breakfast, but then you come down here all through lunch. Which means you're actually working and not moping. So you must have figured something out, right?"

 

"Yeah," Tony says letting a smile rest on his face too. "Yeah, I think I got it."

The childlike joy on the teen's face is contagious. Harley is looking at him like he did that night in the shed when Tony taught him how to recalibrate an Iron Man suit and he swells with pride.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Harley asks a little manic with excitement and nervous energy as he steps closer, peering at all the notes his mentor has jotted down.

 

"A day or two to get to wherever Thanos is, another to actually go against him." Tony shrugs. "After building the thing? Maybe a week at the most."

 

"Have you told the Ex-vengers?"

 

"The  _what_?"

 

"That's what they're calling them in the news. The Ex-vengers, you know, like they're a group of bitchy ex girlfriends that have like a vendetta against the government."

Tony pinches his nose because that's a simple version of events, sure, but it's also not the truest way of putting things. He doesn't want to get into the idiotic politics of why Captain America decided to become a war criminal, so he doesn't.

"That's another story for another day, kid. We can talk about it once everyone is back. I'm sure we'll have to."

 

"So they  _are_  coming back," the boy asks, his voice a whisper in the constant buzz of the lab, and Tony freezes because as much as he calls him  _kid_ , just like Peter, sometimes he forgets that Harley really is only a kid too. That he needs confirmation and attention sometimes.

 

"Yeah," he says wrapping his arms around the teen in a hug, "We're getting them back."

 

"I knew you could do it," he murmurs into Tony's chest, but the man pretends he doesn't hear, just like he pretends he doesn't feel the boy crying against him. He holds him tighter.

 

"Works not over yet, kid. Come with me to break it to the team?"

He doesn't get an answer, but Harley is turning away and wiping his face faster than Tony can comprehend before grabbing his hand and pulling him along behind him.

"FRIDAY?"

 

" **Yes, junior boss?** "

 

"Would you mind calling a meeting in conference room 4? Tony has an idea."

 

" **I'd be happy to.** "

They sit in the room alone for almost five minutes before everyone else starts to trickle in. Most of them give Harley suspicious looks, but when he forces a granola bar in Tony's direction no one mentions it.

Tony laughs and ruffles Harley's hair but he relents and eats the bar after the kid mentions how he ' _needs the fiber in his old age_ '.

Talking through the plan goes easier when he can focus on Harley and staying strong for him and Peter and all the other kids. Ultimately he realizes he's fixing things for  _them_ , because they don't deserve to be punished because  _he_  wasn't good enough the first time.

"So you're thinking if we can locate the stones we can...what? Rewind everything?" Steve asks when Tony finally has FRIDAY show the rest of the leftover team his plans and blueprints and notes, even though it probably looks much more like the mappings of a serial killer to them.

 

"No. Have you seen any book, show or movie about time travel since you popped out of the freezer, Rogers? Time travel is too finicky. Not precise enough. What I'm proposing is we use the quantum energy Lang was telling us about before and use it to create a— well something like the gauntlet essentially, that can act as a homing beacon to the stones. And once it's all together we can use it to undo what he did!" He's gone over this plan in his head enough times that he's gone even crazier. Harley has been dragging him from the lab with post-its and bolts stuck to his face.

 

"Homing Beacon?" asks Clint amused.

 

"The kid liked Star Wars and Star Trek," he says with a shrug of his shoulders, but he can feel the room get tense. He hasn't talked about Peter with the rest of them since the day he had the anxiety attack, and he doesn't plan on talking about it now, either. "It's going to work," he says instead. "I'm going to get him back."

The certainty in his voice is what forces everyone else to agree. It's the first thing any of them have been certain of other than their grief in weeks.

 

 _Hope,_ he realizes. He's given them hope.

 

Rhodey and Harley and Nebula are smiling at him. He thinks, for the first time since he's been back, that maybe he's doing something right.


	9. eıght

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> || spoilers for the beginning of endgame || its brief ||

The plan immediately falls apart when they learn to track the heat signature of the stones and get led straight to Thanos. Carol and Steve think they should catch him now while they can. No plan other than anger and willingness and Tony wants to scream. He's told them before that this won't work, but that was before they knew where the mad titan was. When beating him so soon after defeat was a pipe dream.

Tony stays home.

The Ex-vengers return with an empty gauntlet and a severed head and the news that the stones are gone. Tony wants to yell and scream and cry. So he does. He wishes he still had his arc reactor implanted because the pressure from pushing down on it was profound during times like these. Instead Rhodey has to hold his hand because he's digging into his own chest, nothing to stop his fingernails from ripping into the scar tissue there.

"Now  _what_?" he demands when no one has any new ideas. "Plan B. Your plan failed. So what do we do now!?"

No one knows. He stands there and hates all of them.

 

"He said he destroyed the stones, right?" Rhodey tries to ask anyone to stop Tony from completely tearing them a new one when he's in no shape to do so. "But I thought they were from the start of the universe. How could he have just snapped them away?"

 

"He couldn't have," says Carol quietly as if Rhodey's figured it out. "The stones are energy. They're sentient."

 

"First law of thermodynamics," Rhodey says when he catches on.

 

"Yeah," Bruce agrees, nodding along. "The stones let off massive waves of gamma radiation so even if he destroyed their forms, that much power should have gone somewhere."

 

"Back in space maybe?"

 

Carol is nodding at them thoughtfully.

 

"FRIDAY, scan all our satellites and match them up with the tech reach from the Benatar," Tony orders, "Ping any areas that had a high concentration of energy within the last 32 hours."

 

" **Right away, boss.** "

They all wait with bated breath as the AI runs the scans once. Twice. A third time before coming back inconclusive.

" **Scans find no results.** "

 

Tony feels a metal hand pinning his against the wall and he notices that Rhodey is still in his armor. He doesn't know what to say to make Rhodey let him go. Doesn't know if he  _should_  say anything. Doesn't know if he could without crying his eyes out. He had been betting on being able to get the stones and undo everything. Now the stones are gone and no amount of frivolous searching is going to bring them back it seems.

"FRIDAY have you tried checking for smaller bursts of energy. The radiation could be unstable. It may not show up with the same heat signatures," Bruce says.

 

Tony wants to argue that Bruce doesn't know that. That he couldn't possibly have figured that out, but he seems to have done something because when FRIDAY speaks again Tony feels a flash of hope burn in his chest.

" **I have found the presence of small and unstable amounts of energy within the garage. Please proceed with caution.** "

The walk to the garage is terrifying, probably more than, but Tony is wrapped in the cool metal of Rhodey's arms the entire way there. When they make it, FRIDAY directs them to one of the ugliest vans Tony has even seen.

"That's- uh...that's my van actually," says Scott scratching the back of his head. "Well the company's van. A few friends and I were working on running an Ex-Con security service. But I don't know why there would be..." He pauses before running to the back of the van and throwing the doors open to see the glowing light of a travel sized quantum tunnel. "Holy shit. Holy- Why didn't I- Holy  _shit!_ "

 

"You mind enlightening the rest of us, piss _ant_?" Tony asks in a tone he knows is snappy but is strung too tight to fix.

 

"I have a quantum tunnel in my van."

 

"You have a  _what_?"

 

"Well it wasn't mine initially. The tunnel belongs to Hank Pym, but his whole family dusted, him included. I'm not really sure how to work this thing, but I was trapped in there while everything went to shit. If the stones were reverted back to like pure energy..."

 

"What?" Asks Steve trying to keep up with the science of a time he had not been born for. "You're thinking that maybe they escaped to the quantum zone or whatever?"

 

"Quantum realm, but yeah. I don't see why not. Hope's mom was in there for over a decade and she learned how to heal people using some kind of powerful particles. If there is anywhere super powerful energy blobs would poof off to, I think this is as good a place as any."

Tony wants to let himself hope, so he does. He excuses himself from the garage and waits for Rhodey to follow. He doesn't. At least not immediately. When the door opens again, Steve is stepping out with his hands behind his back and an uncertain look on his face.

"Are you alright, Tony?"

 

"Still alive, Rogers. Did you need something? Where's Rhodey?"

 

"He's getting help out of the suit. He said sometimes the braces get screwed into the armor too tight and it takes a bit more to get out of it."

Tony nods, but he feels terrible all the same because he made the braces and the armor and he should know this well enough to be there for his friend when he needs him. 'Til death do they part, and all that.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Tony looks up from his bout of self-loathing to see that Steve is still standing there while Rhodey has to work twice as hard to do what he used to and needs to ask for help to remove his own battle armor.

 

"No, I can't say that I am okay, considering  _your_  friend is the one that did that to him," Tony says stepping closer to cap for the first time since he's been back and poking a finger into the other man's chest. "He could have died and that one would _not_ have been on me."

Steve's face is priceless and Tony has to turn and walk away before he says anything else. Rhodey finds him in the kitchen cutting a sandwich in half for them to share and sits down across from him at the counter. Tony wants to apologize for not helping him out of the suit. For not making a better suit. For not being better for him. Rhodey stuffs his sandwich in Tony's mouth as soon as he opens it to keep him from talking.

"It's not your fault, Tones."

 

"Then why do I feel like it is?" he says, but he's looking at his hand again, clenching it. He looks up when Rhodey places a hand on top of his.

 

"Even geniuses can be wrong sometimes." It pulls a laugh out of Tony at least and really, that's all Rhodey wanted. "I'm fine. Let's just focus on the plan."

 

"The stones are pure energy now. We can't control that. The plan is fucked, Rhodes and we both know it."

 

"But Tones, we know where the energy is, now you just have to rework your stone magnet to attract their  _energy_. Control'em that way. The plan isn't fucked, it's just different." He shrugs and knocks his knuckles against one of his leg braces. "Sometimes life's just like that."

Tony looks down at his best friend's metal encased leg but for the first time in a long time, he doesn't feel guilty. He feels the excitement of a new plan buzzing in his hands and he taps his fingers against the counter top in logistic intervals.

 

He has more work to do.

 

Rhodey smiles.


	10. nınë

It's been four months since the snap and they've barely made any progress.

Carol has gone back to her job of doing whatever the fuck out in space. Rhodey is helping what's left of the military adjust. Clint's gone AWOL. Harley's situated himself comfortably as part of the family. And they've all stopped having feeling meetings. Tony sees the rest of them moping around the compound and thinks maybe they still need them.

He doesn't say anything about it.

 

"Uncle Rhodey said to tell you to come eat," Harley says as the door to the lab slides open. He's still wearing his pajamas, but he has sneakers on too as if he's been running everywhere looking for anyone.

 

"Nightmare?" asks Tony when he notices the shoes on the boy's feet. He brushes his hands off then makes to stand up in order to follow the teen out of the lab where a part of him feel like it still needs to be right now. He feels like he's onto something.

 

"Pepper's working and you weren't there when I woke up. I'm fine."

 

"You can always just ask FRIDAY where I am."

 

"I wasn't thinking about it. No big deal."

 

"If you were panicking because you were alone, it kind of  _is_  a big deal, kid. You don't have to—"

 

"Stop! I don't need you to baby me, okay? I'm fine!"

Tony doesn't say anything because he gets that Harley is upset. Gets that the boy isn't necessarily yelling at  _him_ , just trying to convince himself that things are okay. But he has every right to be upset and Tony knows that too. Especially considering none of their ideas are working out the way they had planned. They're no closer to getting their families back. It's been months since Tony has come back and nothing has changed. They're still a bunch of depressed assholes trying to fix a problem they couldn't defeat the first time around. The kid was just a little too loud. A bit too abrasive. Tony's footsteps stutter and he leans against the wall to try and get his breathing back under control.

"I'm sorry, Tony, I didn't mean—"

Tony shakes his head because it's not the kid's fault that they're all so on edge lately. That this trauma had triggered childhood trauma from a drunken Howard when Tony was so young but still couldn't do anything to make his father proud. Even now he can't get  _this_  right. Can't fix anything.

"Just a weak heart," Tony says as he tries to catch his breath. Harley snorts.

 

"Bullshit."

 

"What," teases Tony, a hand rubbing at the spot where the reactor used to be, "you don't believe your old man?"

 

"Sorry to say I'm smart enough to know better." Harley's tentative smile drops and he shakes his head. "I really am sorry. It's on your trigger list, loud-angry-voices. I shouldn't have yelled."

 

"It's fine. I know you don't like being coddled. It's not on your list, but I  _know_  that. I just wanted to make sure you know I'm here if you need to talk or something. I don't know. Feelings aren't my specialty."

Rhodey was the only one with any real therapy experience other than Harley and he'd been the one who forced them all to sit down and write up a list of their triggers. FRIDAY made everyone digital copies. No one expected Tony's list to be as long as it was. Tony was more surprised that theirs weren't longer.

He'd had to talk to Rhodey about that too because sharing a list practically the size of his bank account made him feel weak. It's like he had been 15 again, listening to his dad yell at him to be smarter. be better. Be  _more_.

Rhodey'd had to talk him from the alcohol cabinet more than once.

"Tony, no," Harley insists, "I know you're only trying to help. You're always trying to help. And I— I shouldn't have yelled. Especially not at you, when you're the only one actually doing anything about all this. While all those other assholes are up there moping. I'm just..." The boy shrugs and shakes his head. "I don't know."

Tony watches as he plucks a small bolt across the room where it clangs against one of the walls.

"It's not your fault," Tony says leaning against the table with him. He has his arms crossed over his chest. "I'm frustrated too. I don't— I can't figure out what I'm missing."

 

"I bet the other guy could've helped you figure it out," says Harley, resigned to not being good enough for a second dad.

 

"Who?"

 

"Your intern kid. The one you're doing all this for."

 

"Well Peter can do physics quicker than some people can tie their shoes so he probably would have figured it all out on his own. I'm more of a mechanic than a physicist, you know?" Tony chuckles but shrugs. "And besides, I'm doing this for  _both_  of you. You don't deserve to have lost your mom and your sister because I wasn't strong enough. How's that fair?"

He stares at Peter's text books on the desk by the holoscreen then drags his eyes over to the table in the corner where Nebula had taken up residence a few months ago before she went back up to space with Carol and the talking raccoon. He'd taught her how to build, fix and  _affix_  her own replacement parts and pieces from scraps while they were in space. She'd said he was more of a father to her in a few days than Thanos had been her entire life. He thinks that maybe he's doing this for her too.

Harley is looking at him in awe, like he's hung the moon and the stars, but he doesn't notice as he stands straight up, walking past the teen, patting his shoulder as he goes.

"C'mon, kid. You said Platypus made food?"

 

"Uh..yeah!" Harley says shaking himself out of his head and hurrying to follow the mechanic. The strongest man he ever knew. "Well he ordered from that diner you like and got Happy to go pick it up, but basically yeah."

Tony gives a soft laugh as he motions the boy closer and throws an arm around his shoulders while they head towards their quarters where Rhodey and Happy have breakfast ready to be served.

"Breakfast is breakfast, kid. Remember that."

 

"Hey, Tony..."

 

"Yeah?" Tony answers a small grin on his face for the first time in the last couple of days as he glances down at Harley before looking in the direction they're walking.

 

"Do you think— I mean, it's fine if you don't want me to. I'd understand. But— uh would it be okay if I called you Dad or Pops or something."

Tony stops walking to look directly at the teen a few steps behind him. He's grown over the last few months so he stands a few inches from being taller than the older man, but he's still just a kid.  _Tony's_  kid. But he looks so nervous and insecure that Tony doesn't even think before pulling him into a hug. Harley is holding onto him like a lifeline.

"You can call me whatever you want. I told you, you're  _my_  kid and I'm not going anywhere so you're stuck with me. I promise."

 

Harley holds him tighter.


	11. tęn

Tony is sitting in the lab, his head pressed to the cool metal of the work table. The answers have finally come to him in a dream or...well a nightmare, but he's rushed across the compound to the lab to draw up and adjust the schematics. He has FRIDAY running a few scans and tests. He adjusts when necessary.

After 5 hours and another scan for the stones he's pretty sure he's done it this time. He's actually figured it out in more than just theoreticals.

He's running out of the lab and towards his and Pepper's common room before even stopping to check the time.

When he bursts in, hungry and buzzing with excitement, the lights are out. He sobers up quite easily after that. He pads through the house softly, checking the time on the microwave and trying not to be shocked that it's practically 4 in the morning.

He peeks into Harley's room to find the kid snoozing his head off and he asks FRIDAY to turn on the kid's humidifier. Once he hears the machine start its soft hum he moves next door where Peter would be if everything hadn't gone so wrong. Where he hopes the kid'll be soon if his calculations are right (and they usually are). He doesn't open the door because the silence and stillness of what he knows he's going to find would gut him and he knows he can't take that. That's one hypothesis he doesn't even need to test first.

The door to his and Pepper's bedroom is cracked and when he pushes it further open he finds his fiancée softly walking out of the master bathroom, her red hair wild and wavy and full of tangles.

"Room for one more?" he whispers motioning towards the bed and she looks up at him pleasant surprised. She gives a twinkling laugh.

 

"For now," she says coy. "We'll have to get one made after the wedding, though."

 

"You really aren't upset about Rhodey?" he asks quietly once they're both in the bed facing each other. She's tucked up with her shins pressed to his thighs. Their hands laced together.

 

"Honestly?"

 

"Honestly."

 

"I'm really not surprised. You argue like an old married couple but you protect each other too. You guys are special to each other and that's obvious. I'd be  _honored_  to be a part of that."

 

"You'll be better at this whole marriage thing than both of us. You already are."

Pepper absolutely giggles when he places a kiss on the tip of her nose and he wonders what he did to be lucky enough to have both her and Rhodey in his life. On top of everything else he doesn't understand why he feels the happiest he has in a long time, then he remembers that he's figured it out and he tears start streaming down his face. He doesn't realize his face is wet until Pepper pulls him in.

"Oh, Tony," she says, yanking him into a hug, her hair tickling his nose slightly as she tucks her head into his neck. "You're going to be fine. We all are. You'll figure it out. It's okay. Are you okay?"

 

"I know, Pep. And I did. I figured it out. I did it!" he cries into her hair, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing her so tightly. "I mean, it'll take a couple of months to get everything together, but— I'm just so happy."

He can hear sniffles and feel her wet face on his neck, but when she pulls back to look at him again, she's beaming.

They make love that night under a false sky of stars courtesy of FRIDAY and when Pepper notices she laughs this breathless twinkle and it's the happiest Tony's heard her since he proposed. He pulls her closer and watches as her eyes roll to the back of her head, their moans filling up the silence.

 

They fall asleep in each others arms.

 

Sunlight is streaming in through the windows when Tony wakes up and Pepper's side of the bed is cold. There's a post-it stuck to her bedside lamp and a cup of coffee next to his.

_got called in early for a meeting_   
_SI waits for no (wo)man_   
_see you when i get home_   
_good luck_   
_♥_ _pep_

 

Tony wants to cry because he's loved. Then he wants to cry because he realizes that he actually  _knows_  what love feels like. It's taken time of course, to see the way people cared for him after his mom died. Jarvis had cared. Rhodey cared. And Pepper. And Happy. Even Yinsen had learned to care for him at a time when Tony hadn't even cared for himself. He thinks about the people who love him and his heart sings. He knows it's not many people, he but he's loved all the same and it's intense to have that after being alone for so long. He makes his way into the living room with his coffee in his hands. The first thing he sees is Harley sitting in the corner of the couch, his feet on the cushion and his head between his knees. He tilts his head to the side.

"You alright over there, kid? Got a migraine? FRIDAY can dim the lights."

When the room starts to slowly get darker, the teen's head snaps up. The lights freeze though they've barely made it down to 80% and they're still blue toned.

"Please. I can't see. I didn't mean— Don't— No! I'm sorry!  _Please_!"

 

"FRIDAY lights at 100% and gimme Harley's vitals," Tony says rushing over to the kid's side but not touching him. The kid isn't looking at him. His eyes are wide but it doesn't seem like he's looking at anything. There are tears rapidly falling down his cheeks. "Harls? Are you alright? Hey, can you hear me? Kid? Harley?"

 

" **Vitals are normal aside from elevated heart rate and breathing. Though it appears that junior boss suffers from Night Terrors. He is currently in the midst of an episode.** "

 

"Night terrors? What, so he's asleep?"

 

" **Affirmative.** "

 

"That's actually kind of terrifying." Tony sucks in a breath then moves closer again, finally laying a hand on Harley's shoulder. He shakes him slightly. "C,mon you got to wake up."

 

Harley's eyes stay open, but they move slowly towards Tony before the boy blinks.

"Tony?" he says with a confused look on his face. His eyebrows are furrowed as he takes in Tony's worried expression. "You okay?"

 

"Am I—? Kid, _you_ were  _screaming_. I should be asking you that."

 

"Yeah," says Harley still confused. "I'm fine."

 

"Mhm," says Tony unconvinced."FRIDAY, scan him."

 

" **Junior boss' vitals are perfectly normal.** "

 

"Uh...What the fuck—"

 

" **If I may, Boss. Most people suffering from Night Terrors do not remember their episodes though they do remember having fitful sleeping habits. As long as he is awake junior boss is fine. He is only a danger to himself if he is asleep.** "

 

"Night terrors? Wha— Tony did I wake you? I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep so I came to get a bag of chips or something, but Pepper was up and she made me some hot chocolate. I thought I'd try and catch a nap on the couch."

Tony shakes his head. Clearly this wasn't something Harley was aware of and if it was he wasn't ready to talk about it with Tony. He squeezed the teens shoulder before standing back up and moving back into the kitchen to find something resembling breakfast.

"No, you didn't wake me. I was just gonna make breakfast when I saw you over there."

 

"Oh." The kid nods, standing and stretching. He smiles when his back pops and he walks over to lean against the kitchen island as Tony starts cracking eggs. "You seem in a better mood than usual. I didn't even know you  _could_  cook."

 

"My mother was so Italian she made her own pasta and you don't think I can fry a couple of eggs?" Tony has his eyebrows raised when he looks over at the laughing teen. He shakes his head. "We make pizzas together like every week."

 

"Buying pre-made dough and sauce isn't the same as  _making_  pizza."

 

"You know what? You're right. Next time we'll make it from scratch," Tony says shrugging not noticing that Harley is both smiling and in awe all at once. Tony flips the eggs over in the pan before laying down a few strips of bacon.

When no other information is given, Harley reaches to the cup beside the coffee machine and tosses a coffee stirrer at the older man who only laughs. He stands smiling and happy under the barrage of wooden sticks.

"There's more where that came from," Harley says waving a stirrer in a way that is both joking and threatening.

 

"Oh, yeah," Tony agrees sarcastically looking at the empty stirrer cup is. "I'm sure there are."

 

"Just answer the question."

 

"You didn't ask a question."

 

"It was  _implied._ " Harley looks expectantly at Tony but the older man merely chuckles so he starts grabbing the stirrers that fell onto the counter and continues flinging them at the mechanic across the island.

 

"Okay, okay," Tony says laughing. He takes a deep breath and nods. "You're right. I  _am_  in a better mood. I figured out the stone problem."

 

Harley freezes.

"Y-you did?" His eyes are wide and his heart is fluttering in his chest because if Tony's figured it out then that means his mom is going to be okay. And Ava's going to be okay and they get to come back  ** _home_**. He told himself he wasn't going to cry again in case anything else went wrong, but it's been loss after loss and he knows they're due for a win. The tears fall anyway, but he only nods and coughs a little to clear his throat. "Yeah, that's uh— that's good."

 

"Yeah," agrees Tony with a soft understanding smile and a fond look. "It is good."


	12. elëven

It takes longer than Tony expects to call everyone back to the compound, but it happens. It's felt like forever since he first got back and he's more or less back to how he was before. Figuring out the problem has given his confidence back and he's not quite crying on command anymore. Pepper's another story. With the way her emotions are running away from her he would have thought they switched places but she's just stressed about figuring out the company once 84% of their investors and workers come back from nothing.

Everyone but Clint makes it back. They come into the conference room still upset and scared like they hadn't even tried to figure this out since they've all split up and it puts Tony's teeth on edge. Harley is on his left, a hand on his forearm, and Nebula makes a b-line for his other side, placing a cool metal hand on his shoulder. He smiles and nods at her. She drops her hand, nodding back.

"You said you had a plan, Stark," says Carol and Tony really wants to kick her ass back to space, but then Rhodey walks in and he can feel the breaths come easier again.

 

"Nice of you to join us, Honeybear," he teases because it's what he does when he's uncomfortable or nervous or anxious or anything else really.

 

"Had to get the armor off, dear," Rhodey responds and Tony can see the flash of sorrow in his friends face. The fact that he knows that he's late and he's used to it because he can't get out of his suit as fast as he used to. He can't walk as fast as he used to. The braces creak loudly in Tony's head. Rhodey sits on the other side of where Harley is and reaches a hand up to pat at Tony's bicep.

 

"Should've called. I could have helped you strip down to the basics." He says it as a joke but he knows his tone falls flat. Rhodey snorts out a laugh anyway.

 

"I don't doubt it."

 

"That's gross," Harley puts in. "Stop flirting and tell them your plan."

 

"If you weren't in the way kid, I could do both," Tony says with one of his old wicked grins.

 

"There are planets dying out there, Stark." Carol says like she wants to start barking orders. "I don't have time for this."

 

"You snap at him one more time and you're answering to me," says a voice. Tony shouldn't be as surprised as he is that it's Natasha speaking up for him.

She's been fluttering around the compound trying to find ways to be helpful. She's in contact with the government and what's left of Fury and Maria's crew. She's taken up ballet again, her flats strung up on the back of her chair. She's seen him on his death bed more than once. And she hadn't betrayed him the same way Steve had. At the end of the day she still signed the accords. She still believed in him. Still cared about him.

He sends her a grateful look and he knows that she catches it before she blushes and looks away. Fighting for him is her way of apologizing and he knows that. He accepts that.

"So," starts Tony when he sees that Carol had nothing else to say. She's starting to realize that this was once a team, a family, and no matter of what's come between them they'll trust each other before they ever trust her regardless of Thor's approval. Tony smirks. "As we all know, the stones started as energy. They were forced into ingots by the forces of space and different gravitational pulls. Now, if we can pinpoint their location in the quantum realm then we'll be able to collect that energy. The tech will still work for that, but we don't quite have the power to individually force them into something that small and concentrated. But if we could transfer them to a vessel in order to hone and control all that energy—"

"A vessel?" Natasha asks turning back to look at him. "You mean like Vision?"

 

"Well you're close, but no. Thanks for playing."

 

"He means me," Nebula says, getting up from her seat to stand next to Tony with her arms crossed. She reaches her arm back out squeezing his shoulder gently because she knows why they're here. She's more than grateful that he'll trust her with this. "We've discussed it."

 

"What do you mean you've discussed it?" Steve asks and it doesn't bring Tony any joy to see the pain but hope in his eyes at the prospects of getting Sam back. Getting Barnes back. "Discussed what? What exactly is the plan here?"

 

"We siphon the stones energy into Nebula. If I build her another hand or an arm maybe," he says the last part more to himself. He shakes the thought and keeps talking. "She'll be able to put it on and reverse everything then we can just send the energy right back." Tony's simplified the plan a lot. He doesn't feel like arguing. Not when it's all figured out and all that's left to do is build the damn thing. He still has to implement a way to make the energy extraction device into something small enough and he has to start modeling a hand (maybe an arm) like Nebula's but  _stronger_. Vibranium will probably work. When he first asked her to help him, he had meant with the construction since she knew the most about conductive metals and the power of the stones between the two of them, but she'd insisted on doing more. When she asked to be the vessel he refused vehemently, he wasn't about to lose _another_ kid, but she was determined. Nothing was going to stop her. He's ready to dismiss the group when Steve speaks up again.

 

"You saw what those things did to Thanos. And you're ready to just give your life up for this?"

 

Nebula looks him directly into his eyes. She didn't grow up on earth. She couldn't give a damn what Captain America should stand for. What she does know is that he's hurt the only person other than her sister who's ever given a damn about  _her_. Tony never thought he'd make it back and yet he'd still talked to her like he was. Like he'd take her with him if she wanted. Like he wanted to protect her. Like a father. Like a friend. Like an  ** _equal_**. And now this  _Captain_  is trying to take her choice away too. Make her feel like a child. Like she's not good enough to serve his measly planet. She stretches her left arm out and let's it separate. Each facet of metal popping out until the wire frame of her skeleton shows beneath it all.

"I'm 96.73% varied metal. I have 2 hearts. I have been pushed to the brink of death with only my father's power to keep me alive. Using the stones will not kill me, only fry a few circuits. I do not know you, Captain Rogers, and it will do you well to not act as though you know me." She looks around the room before letting the metal slink back into place around the frame. "Any more questions?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) i dont know how much of nebula is actually made of metal nor what type of metal  
> 2) the two heart thing is a shout out to time lords for obvious reasons  
> 3) nebula was actually on the brink of death in the comics, her skin was peeling and she was barely existing. it was gross (thanos is an asshole)


	13. twėlve

They all figure that the reversal will happen just as instantaneously as the decimation. Bruce has helped Tony run the numbers and it stands to reason. They also figure that everyone will show up in the same place they disappeared and Tony knows without a doubt that he needs to be  _there_. Whether he has an panic attack on the ship or not is irrelevant.

He doesn't give a shit if the wizard can open a portal and drop Peter in his fucking lap, he needs to be on Titan when his kid wakes up. He needs to see it with his own eyes. He needs to be able to hold the kid and make sure that he's alright.

Harley wants to go home and wait for his mom and Ava. Tony understands the need to see them come back first hand, even if it guts him to see the kid start packing his things.

"Don't look so stressed, Pops," Harley says once he's packed and on the roof waiting. It's the first time he's actually called Tony that since he asked. Tony's heart squeezes in his chest. "I'm serious, old man. I'll call as soon as they show up and we'll be right back on that jet coming home to you. It's going to work."

 

Tony is pushing onto the nanosuit arc reactor that's attached to his clothes which doesn't quite feel the same as forcing an electro-magnet into his chest, but it takes away some of the anxiety of letting Harley out of his sight. He nods at the kid. Harley grabs his hand to still it and places a bolt with a nut screwed on into it instead for him to fidget with.

"Thanks, kid."

 

"It's what I do," Harley says jokingly smug with a playful shrug of his shoulders. He looks over at Tony seriously. "I just got a dad and you think I'm gonna just leave you out here alone? Plus I have a nerdy brother to pick on now. I'm not missing out on  _that_."

 

Tony laughs. It's breathless and happy and relieved and full of the realization that this is it. That he finally figured it out. That within the next day or two everyone will be back and he can finally rest. After years of always checking his shadow for the next big threat, it had finally come and gone. Him bringing everyone back is proof.

He thinks of Nebula down in the workshop testing metals and trying to make a model of her arm for him to work off of.

"Don't forget a scary blue big sister."

 

"She could literally cut me open and it still wouldn't be the coolest thing to happen to me since you crashed in my shed."

 

"Kid, do we need to talk about that?"

 

Harley laughs and it's just as happy and breathless as Tony's was before. He smiles as he wraps the teen into a hug.

I  _will_  be back, Dad," he says quietly happy into Tony's shoulder, "I promise."

 

Tony squeezes him tighter before letting go. He doesn't start crying but it's a near thing.

"Okay, kid, get outta here. I'll call you tonight. We should be ready by tomorrow and I'll call you again in the morning with a time."

 

"Yeah," says Harley nodding confidently as he heads towards the open door of the jet. He gets his bags packed away but then he's running back to Tony for one more hug. "Love you." He peels away and clears his throat with red cheeks. Tony grins.

 

"Love you too, kid." He ruffles his son's hair and watches when the kid finally runs back to the jet, waving excitedly from the window. Take off is smooth and he let's out a breath he doesn't realize he's been holding, just waiting for something to go wrong.

Tony turns to go back inside and the walk back into the compound is noticeably lonelier. He tries to think about why he's doing this. Tries to tell himself that he's almost done it. Then he thinks of what's left of Vision's body left practically unguarded in Wakanda. He thinks of Nebula's arm frying more than a few circuits. He thinks of the plane that Harley is on going down. He thinks of Peter never coming back and his chest aches. And he wants to scream and cry and panic, but he doesn't. Instead he follows the unnatural beat of his heart from having shrapnel forced in and dug back out, down to the lab where Rhodey is keeping Nebula company as she takes her own arm apart.

"It's not fun losing pieces of yourself," he hears Nebula say quietly just as he walks in.

 

"No," Rhodey agrees, "But that just means we have to work with what we got. It's what makes us who we are."

 

"Tony deserves better than a hunk of metal who was too useless to fight Thanos head on.

 

"Tony didn't expect you to fight Thanos head on. He didn't even expect you to want to do _this_. He doesn't want to put you in danger at all. We're in this together. All of us," says Rhodey trying to explain. "He knows more than anyone what it's like to feel like a useless hunk of metal." He kicks a leg out, the brace creaking and thumping against the leg of the work table. "We both do, but he'd never think that about you because of something like this. When that man loves, he loves hard, and it's clear he already loves you. He trusts you down here."

 

"Of course I do," Tony says finally walking into his workshop. He doesn't want to interrupt but eavesdropping was making him feel terrible. She didn't come to him with this and maybe that meant he wasn't supposed to hear it. "She's my kid. My dad wasn't good with trusting me, and I never gave him a reason to be, but I'm breaking the cycle. You're capable enough to do things on your own. You don't need me watching you every second." He shrugs, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. "That's what FRIDAY's for."

Rhodey barks out a laugh and Nebula fixes her face into her best approximation of a smile. It's not quite there, but he knows she's trying. Tony smiles back. He's trying too. He claps his hands before placing them on his hips.

 

"So, what've you got so far?"

 

Nebula's arm whirs and hums when she turns to show him, each piece shifting and creaking out of place. She isn't the same type of shy that Peter is where he has done good work but isn't sure if it'll stand up to Tony Stark levels of scrutiny. And she isn't like Harley who likes to do things himself because he like the look of surprise he can get from doing something Tony didn't think could be done. She's different because she's so eager to please that sometimes she loses herself and he knows that feeling. The feeling of drinking yourself into a coma because you're 15 and even after studying at MIT, graduating summa cum laude, your father won't look at you with anything but scorn. His heart aches for her.

She must see something in his eyes that looks too calculating, because she looks panicked like she doesn't know what she's done wrong. Like she's ready to lose another arm. Like abuse has been seared into her skeleton. He knows that feeling too.

He places a hand on the shoulder that isn't forced apart like the inner workings of a clock. He smiles at her softly, because he isn't mad and he isn't going to hurt her. They're family now and he knows the pain that comes from being rejected by family. His other hand rubs at his chest, pushing down and scratching at the scar tissue that's never healed quite right. Rhodey grabs that hand, placing it on the cool metal of the table. The corner is just sharp enough to relieve the pressure without cutting him.

He blinks a few times to clear his head then pulls his hand back, running it through his hair. He takes another chance to look at the intricacies of her arm. The pieces she's added and adjusted based on the holoscreen that FRIDAY's pulled up. It'll work, but it'll be messy. He shakes his head.

"You're trying too hard to follow the blueprints for one of my gauntlets," he says rubbing his hand across her back instead of squeezing her shoulder tighter. It wouldn't be grounding, he knows, it'd make her feel trapped. "Why don't you try building something you want. Even if it gets completely fried, it'll go on the 'First Big Invention' wall." He points a thumb behind him where the wall is covered in Peter and Harley's dumb gadgets. The potato gun and old webshooters and homemade motherboards from their first computers. "You don't have to try and please me. I'll be proud of you either way. Do something for yourself."

He's never seen Nebula cry. Not when they were stranded for days in space. Not when she told Rocket the rest of the guardians were kaput. Not when they returned to the compound with Thanos' head and the battered, burned and empty gauntlet. But she does now.

Her metal arms whirs and whines and clicks out of place clanging loudly against the table. Her eyes are big and full of anger, grief and death but still so innocent. Tony wraps her in a hug before he can think that maybe she might not want one. Her single arm is around him in seconds, reciprocating his grip just as tight, her hand wrapped in the back of his shirt like she'll fall apart if she lets go.

He swears to himself he'll protect her no matter what it takes. If Rhodey sees the resolution on his face, he doesn't say anything, but his lips are pinched tight.


	14. thırtęen

The new arm is made mostly of vibranium but Scott had also insisted that they use pym particles to keep it stable within the Quantum field. They try it and Tony is surprised when it helps, because he hadn't expected the other man to be right. He didn't seem to take much serious, but this seemed to be just as important to him as it was to the rest of them.

"How does it feel?" asks Tony softly as Nebula clicks the arm into place.

 

"Heavy," she says, a serious expression on her face. He nods as he steps closer to help relieve some of the weight and hopefully relieve the strain on the young woman.

 

"It's because it's so compact," Tony reminds her prodding at it. "There are like a dozen fail-safes in here so it won't fry any of your important networking parts."

He doesn't look at her as he continues to twist and rewire and adjust. This is the day. In a few hours they're going to be strapping themselves into another ship and and trying to locate the wasteland of a planet where everything went so wrong last time. He pulls at a cord that has her other hand reaching out to stop his from moving any more. She doesn't say that it hurts or that what he's doing is the equivalent of shoveling through her guts with a hot knife. He knows to apologize anyway. He can't imagine what she's going through, except he _can_. The strong grip on his hands stops him from digging into his chest.

"Why do you do that?" Her voice isn't soft. It's strong and echoing in the silence of the lab, but she hadn't liked the way that ACDC grated against her wires as she tried to screw everything together.

 

"Grounding pressure," he says because that's what Rhodey and Pepper had called it and they had gone through more therapy than he was ever willing to. "When we were on the ship I told you I'd almost died. I was kidnapped," he says as bluntly as he knows how because sure, it's been more than 10 years but it still aches to know that Obie had done it. Had sold him off for the chance to sell more weapons. He tries to only give her the facts. "A bomb went off. Metal shrapnel in my heart. I wasn't a good man then, but a good man— a  _great_  man saved me. But he had to put an electro-magnet in my chest to do it. I upgraded the model eventually, but it became a part of me. It was heavy and sometimes it burned, but I had it for years. Never thought I'd get to live without it." He squeezes her hand before letting it go and walking over to where his first miniature arc reactor sits in box from Pepper. He brings it over and sits it on the work table in front of them.

 

"'Proof that Tony Stark has a heart'?" The question is clear in her tone.

 

"I used to be a weapons dealer. Most efficient weapons in the market. I was proud of what I did. Of what my father did. It was the family business, you know. Was glad I was finally living up to my dad's name. Didn't know about the other name." He shrugs, but his eyebrows are furrowed and his heart still hurts from all that he'd done. "They called me the  _Merchant of Death_... Never to my face of course." He shakes his head, wishing he could wash all the red from his ledger. No matter how many lives he's saved he knows they don't compare to the ones he's help take. "Then I almost died from some of my own weapons that were being sold illegally. Had a change of heart." He taps on the glass casing.

Nebula is looking at him with wide eyes and a slack jaw, but he can't bare to make eye contact. She reaches out her right hand, one that isn't cold and calculating metal, and places it on his chest. He knows she can feel the thick puckered scar tissue through his shirt. It's hard to miss. What she probably can't feel are the much smaller ripples and divots of scars and burns from palladium poisoning and electric jolts from Thor himself, but Tony knows they're there. He closes his eyes until she pulls her hand away. His eyes flutter open and she places her hand on her own chest, clicking a piece of metal out of the way. Before Tony can ask what's happening, he sees it.

"So my father could have easy access to my first heart," she explains anyway. The thumping of her hearts is just as loud and strong in the space as her voice is. Her heart looks normal, almost human, compared to the rest of her. It's covered in moisture and blood and mucus and whatever else runs through the body of blue space aliens, but it's still a heart. Tony knows the fragility and intimacy of having it out in the open like this. He looks away.

 

"You didn't deserve that."

 

"I know," she agrees but her voice cracks even as she slides the literal door to her heart back in place. Tony learns to hate Thanos even more. They don't speak again until the new arm is easier for her to handle comfortably enough to finish the mission.

Tony remembers a time where he was sure there was only the next mission, now he's sitting around preparing for the  _last_  mission and hoping everyone can make it out in one piece. Harley had texted him that morning that he was sleeping in the shed because the house still felt like a ghost town. And the rest of the team has already called to let them know that they're back in Wakanda.

He walks Nebula to the garage with an arm around her shoulders, stopping only when they're behind the ExCon Security van. He moves away then to go and start up the vehicle, listening to the buzz of the machine in the back conking to life. He steps back out of the van, slamming the door and walking over to where Nebula is trying not to show how completely terrified she is.

 

"You don't have to do this," Tony says and even though it hurts, he means it. He's not about to force her to put her life on the line no matter how many lives it could save. It's not up to him.

 

"Yes," she says surer than he's ever seen her, "I do."

Without any further notice, she's flicking the switch on her arm and she's swallowed into the tunnel in seconds. Tony stands, holding his breath and he doesn't know why he's so nervous besides the fact that that's  _his kid_ in there and he doesn't know what it'll take for him to stop adopting every kid he comes into contact with, but he's an only child and he's always wanted a big family. Wanted to prove somehow that he wasn't like Howard no matter how scared he'd been to be be wrong.

Tony's pacing back and forth trying to force himself to recall how long it'll take for her to come back. They've been over the plan enough for it to be etched into his brain, but he can't seem to remember. Why can't he remember? Why isn't she back yet? Why isn't he breathing? He opens his mouth in panic and sucks in a gulp of air. He doesn't know how long he's been on his knees learning how to breathe again when the machine starts to thrum and clank before finally spitting Nebula back out. He doesn't know if it's the lack of oxygen in his brain or the residual energy still shifting through her arm, but she's glowing.

 

"Let's go," says Nebula, head held high for the first time since Titan. Her strength, Tony realizes after months of knowing her, is more than just the will to not give up. It's her will to do better every time. They're getting everyone back, because neither of them will rest until it's done. He forces another gust of air into his lungs before standing.

 

The walk to the restored Benatar is full of a quiet tension Tony hasn't felt since that first Avengers' team meeting years ago. Back before he had ever properly met Peter or Harley or even knew about aliens other than Thor. He sucks in a breath through his nose, holding it for a few seconds before releasing it out his mouth. When he takes a peek over at Nebula she still looks confident in her resolve even when the idea of her getting hurt is chipping away at Tony's.

They board the ship easier than they had gotten off of it and they take their seats, still habit after months away from the helm of a ship that doesn't even belong to them. They direct it out of the garage and onto the lawn. With the push of a few buttons the engine is humming to life and it only takes a sharp push and pull on the lever for them to finally take off into the atmosphere.

Tony thinks about how they've all been living a nightmare. Even with the good moments bleeding in, nothing was really the way it was supposed to be. They were finally going to fix it.

 

He takes a breath.


	15. føurtëen

Titan is just how Tony remembers it. Silent and barren and full of destruction. He's not as strong as he was and he hadn't been nearly strong enough back then so the idea of them having miscalculated has even his blood vibrating with nervous energy.

 

"My father is dead," Nebula says quietly as if to reassure both of them. "When I bring everyone back it'll all be over?"

 

Tony doesn't quite like the look in her eyes, but he agrees. He watches as she raises her glowing arm and snaps. The wave of energy blasts away from her. It's brighter than the sun. It's loud and all encompassing as the ground starts shaking beneath them. It's over as quickly as it starts. The energy from the stones have dispersed themselves in the universe so the heavy arm is even heavier again. It's burned to a crisp and it crumbles to the ground while Nebula stumbles forward into Tony's outstretched arms. The bits of skin where the arm had been attached are charred and their are scars crackling out towards the rest of her body like a digital map, but she's alive. She sobs.

 

The silence is back, but he can feel her crying into his shirt. He's rubbing her back, placing a kiss on the top of her head and assuring her that she's done good when he hears it. The shuffle of dust shifting. Of people re-becoming. He watches them form in the same order they dusted.

Mantis

Drax

Quill

Strange

 

"What are you doing here?" Strange asks, trying to stand. He's battered from a fight Tony knows was months ago, but Peter still hasn't shown up and feels like it's just happened all over again. "You shouldn't be here."

Tony doesn't spare him a glance. He's holding his breath, moments from a panic attack because the stones are gone. Their energy is gone. There are no do-overs this time. But Peter's not here.

 

There are 6 of them standing on a planet far from what Tony calls home and Titan is silent again.

 

Strange is floating over to him but he doesn't talk until he's too close. Tony is trying to force himself not to panic, because as soon as he dies this is all over. Strange reaches a hand out and Tony wants to break it off. The hand freezes just above his shoulder as if waiting for permission. If he looks over he'd see that it was trembling.

"I have a thing with the touching," he says, but his voice is hoarse and torn in his own ears.

 

"You shouldn't be here," Strange says again in the silence. "You changed the future by being here. I can't— I haven't seen this. I don't know what's going to happen now."

 

"I'm gonna tell you what's going to happen," Tony says and his voice is still torn to shreds and shaking but his will is strong. His father always said that Stark men were made of iron _._ He knows that the people around him are starting to see it. He's starting to see it—to feel it. "We are going to stand here and wait for my kid to come back, because he  _is_  coming back. And when he does I am going to give him a hug because he deserves so much more than that, then we are going to get on that ship and go home. Everyone understand?"

No one says anything, but it's as if the universe had been waiting for an order. For proof that he'd made it this far to finish the job himself and not hunkered behind another kid who'd had a shitty father. The dust doesn't settle. It shuffles and arches and spins and Tony is rushing over to where red and blue fabric is starting to form again.

 

When Peter opens his eyes, there is light.

 _A gift,_ says a voice too old and too ancient to be Peter's.  _For setting the universe right again._

 

Peter blinks and when his eyes move over to look into Tony's, they're brown and full of tears.

"Mr. Stark?" says the teen, his voice small. "D-Dad?"

 

"I'm here, Pete. I'm right here."

 

"I'm sorry. I'm  _so_  sorry. I should have stayed on the bus. I shouldn't have gotten in the way. I should've—"

 

"You have nothing to apologize for. This isn't on you, kid. None of it. Yeah, you could have stayed on the bus, but then I wouldn't have known where you were and that would have killed me."

 

"I just wanted to help, but it hurt...everything hurt so much." He doesn't look at Tony when he says it, he's still somewhere else. Thinking about how it feels to have your cells feel like they're on fire. Every atom ripping itself apart. He hops up without any warning and looks around them even though his spidey-sense is quiet. "Did— Is it over?"

 

Tony pulls him into a hug. His grip is sturdy and more than enough to send Peter into a bout of tears. Tony only pulls back enough to kiss the kids cheek before forcing him back into a hug. As he ordered, everyone starts moving towards the ship. Even Strange comes along, saying how he's low on energy, but the looks he keeps sending Peter has Tony sure that the kid was able to wedge his way into the wizard's heart as well somehow. Nebula stays back to help both Tony and Peter onto the ship, even one handed she is trying to make sure her new family stays safe.

He's not sure if he's taught her much about caring for people or if she's just kept it repressed before, but once she checks to make sure he's okay she moves into the cockpit where Quill is at the helm of the ship and offers her condolences. He's angry, but she let's him grieve. She grieves. They mourn. They deserve to. Tony looks away, squeezing his arm around Peter a little more as they sit side by side in the back of the ship.

"I missed you, kid."

 

"How long has it been?" Peter's looking down at his hands as if they aren't his anymore and Tony's heart breaks.

 

"How long has it been for _you_?" asks Tony softly and Peter looks up surprised as if the man couldn't have figured it out. He shakes his head.

 

"I don't know," says Peter quiet and confused, but he isn't looking at Tony anymore. His eyes are back on his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> should have another chappie up by sunday  
> thanks for reading...i really hope you lot are enjoying this😊
> 
> \-- luci xoxo


	16. fıftęen

"Where is he?" asks an impatient May Parker as soon as the ship lands. Pepper is standing right next to her, the same look on her face. Eager but nervous.

 

"Is that...?" Peter's voice rings across the field and then he's catching sight of May and running into her arms. "Oh my God, May. I'm so sorry."

 

"Peter," she whispers and her voice is like a prayer. "I thought I'd never see you again." She squeezes him tightly, kissing his forehead and running a hand through his hair.

 

"May, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left. I should have stayed on the bus. I shouldn't have gone to school. I wish I could have stayed with you. Oh god, I should have just stayed."

 

"Peter, baby, it's okay. You're here now. You're safe."

It takes everything in him to stop from squeezing her half to death with his strength. When they do separate he has an arm full of Pepper.

 

"I'm fine, Mom. I promise," he says. "I didn't mean to worry everyone. I just wanted to help."

 

"Worrying about you is our job, kiddo," May says softly, a hand still in his hair. "And Tony wasn't giving up until you were home. You know that."

Peter looked back where Tony was standing, the man keeping an eye on him but trying to not completely surround him. Pepper let him go in order to grab hold of Tony and pull him in next.

 

"You did it, Tony."

 

" _We_ did it," he says, eyes on Nebula and she does her best approximation of a smile.

 

*** * ***

 

" **Incoming call from Iron Lad.** "

 

"Patch him through," Tony says, standing up and rushing towards the landing pad. "C'mon Pete. Got someone I want you to meet."

 

 _ETA is five minutes, old man,_  Harley says instead of hello.

 

"Good tohear you're still as annoying as ever, kid. How's Ava? And your mom?"

 

_Tired. They're both napping. Whatever happened, they're drained. I can carry Ava, but do you think you could send a suit for my mom?_

 

"I'm always in a suit."

 

_You're not supposed to be, remember? No panicking or attacking._

 

"Protection only," swears Tony and he hears both boys snort. "We're waiting for you to land, kid."

 

_10-4, Pops._

The clicking of the phone calms Tony almost as much as having his family in one place. He can see his private jet in the distance and it puts his heart at peace.

 

"Uh...who was that?" asks Peter.

 

"You'll see in about 2 minutes." Tony checks his watch. "1 minute and 27 seconds."

"It's just...they called you— I mean, I didn't know you had any other kids. Or  _any_  kids! I just..."

 

"He's as much my kid as you are. Life's too short for you not to know I love you, okay. I never want to replace your dad or your Uncle Ben, but you should definitely know you're like a son to me, Pete."

 

"No," Peter says and Tony freezes. "No! I mean, I know! Well I kinda hoped at least.  _You're_  like a dad to  _me._ And you  _know_  that! My dad died when I was like 4; I barely remember him. And Uncle Ben was always that, my Uncle. Back before all this happened I called you dad, because that's what you are to me, but I always kind of thought you were just humoring me."

 

"Pete, you're my kid. If I could adopt you on the spot, I would, but I wouldn't do that to May. Not without discussing it with both of you. Pepper loves you. Rhodey loves you. There's not a hard reach to say that  _of course_  I love you. Never doubt that."

 

"I know. Sometimes I just..." Peter shakes his head. "I'm not used to people choosing me. My parents died then May and Ben were forced to take care of me. I didn't want you to get stuck doing the same thing."

 

"When have you ever known me to do something I didn't want to do?"

 

"Well you go to meetings and you don't really like those."

 

"I do however love Pepper and would do anything for  _her_."

 

"That's fair," says Peter smiling.

Any other words are cut off by the sound of the jet landing and the door sliding open. Tony rushes over. Peter follows him with an uncertain look in his eye. Harley's out first, his sister asleep on his back. He doesn't look up but he grunts a little as he adjusts his grip on her.

 

"Mom woke up when we started landing."

 

"I'm sure she did." Tony walks over and reaches a hand out to help her off the plane and Peter can't help but notice that it's the same kind of kindness he uses with May. Like she deserves it but he doesn't. Like he's glad to even be in the presence of a kid that they've spent so long raising just for him to come in on the easy parts. "Good to see you again, Krissy."

 

"Thanks for takin' care of my boy, Stark."

 

"Of course."

 

"You know all you'd have to do is ask. I'd sign the papers. Don't think I don't know all the opportunities you can open up for him that I couldn't even think about tryin'. He needs you."

 

"I know what it's like to have your family torn apart. I won't do that to him."

 

"I'm asking you as a friend and as his mother to do it  _for_  him. You're already his emergency contact. He needs a father and even being states away you've done more for him than Tyler ever did."

 

"Tyler?"

 

"The one who could spare the sperm but not the time," Harley says.

 

"He means his birth father," his mom puts in. "My ex-husband. He was never one for settlin' down and it's my fault for ever thinkin' he would. He knocked me up twice then ran as far away as he could get. You've done more for my family in a coupla years than he ever has. So just think about it, okay?"

 

"Yeah, okay. I'll think about it," Tony agrees with a nod as he walks her into the building. "But you should see his room first. I don't think he cleaned it the entire time he was here."

It's like the tension is immediately broken as Harley groans behind him.

 

"Mind your business, old man. I was mourning!"

 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, kid."

Harley sticks his tongue out, still not noticing Peter (or at least acting like he hasn't) as they head up to the floor just below the penthouse so he can lay his sister on a proper bed and help his mother get settled.

Peter doesn't officially meet Harley, but he knows he'll make a good brother, especially after his super hearing picks up a whispered  _Thanks for bringing them back, Dad._  He thinks that if he had to choose, he'd wish for a brother like Harley every time.

 


	17. sıxtëen

Peter hasn't been able to sleep since he's gotten back. It's been too quiet. The inside of the soul stone was always full of sobs and whispers and screams and memories. Even asking FRIDAY to play ambient noise isn't loud enough to calm the thumping of his heart against his chest. He isn't sure how much time moved within the stone, but it was different there. He was older. He felt older and younger at the same time. More experienced, but terrified of screwing up. Dr. Strange had said he'd been all ages at once. That the stone condenses your soul into a less dimensional thing so it can fit in the same space all at once. It's what prevented anything but the stones themselves from bringing them back.

 

Now that he  _is_  back, Peter's not really sure what to do.

 

For the most part, he's been avoiding Tony and by extension, Harley, for the last few days. They combat the silence but they're strange to him somehow. Not quite what he remembers Tony to be. He's excited to have siblings now (of course he is), because Tony did explain that Harley and Ava were a package deal and then there was the blue lady from space and  _the_  Vision from the fight back in Germany, but he's also terrified of still being nerdy Peter Parker. It was fine before when he was at school, because it could stay at school. But although Harley seems like a good brother he also seems too cool to even look Peter's direction on a normal day and now they're expected to eat dinner together and something about him  _knows_  he isn't good enough. It's those moments when the silence is the loudest. Peter had practically always been alone before. He liked having the time to himself to think. Now he thinks it may send him to an early grave.

 

He's tried to start hanging out in noisier spaces around the compound. He makes snacks in the main kitchen and watches the end of movies during movie night when everyone's already asleep. He makes it a week and a half when he's finally caught, closing the fridge with half a granola bar sticking out of his mouth and both of his arms full of sandwich supplies. Harley's just leaning on the back of one of the chairs sitting behind the breakfast bar. The granola bar drops to the floor with a crumpled thump. And he rushes to put the rest on the counter before he drops any of that.

"You're Peter, right?"

 

"I— uh...yeah?"

 

"Cool. I'm Harley."

 

"Yeah, I know."

 

"So, what, you just gonna keep hiding from me 'til I disappear or something?"

 

"I was just trying to give you time with Tony and stuff," Peter says rubbing at the back of his neck. "Didn't want to interrupt or anything."

 

"I've  _had_  time with Tony. We were working on ways to save  _you_ , but now you're here and it's like you want us to pretend you aren't. He thinks you're mad at him or still adjusting or whatever and he's giving you time to come to him when you're 'ready'. Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. I think that's a load of bull."

 

"I just..." Peter is looking intensely at Harley hoping for any hint of anything, but his spidey-sense is silent. He's not sure he can share his fears of silence in the deep pit of him because he knows just as well that loud sounds send him barreling into panic attacks faster than anything else. He starts with the simplest problem. "I've never had siblings. I barely uh...I barely have  _friends_  and for the last two years it's just been me and my aunt, May. You just seem so cool, ya know? Like the popular type. And I know how the popular kids treat guys like me."

 

"I build robots in my free time, dude. What part of that makes you think I'm cool or popular? I've got my own bullies, I don't need to be yours." Harley says it resigned as if he's just as used to it as Peter is and even trying to change hasn't fixed that. "And besides you're Spiderman, right. You should be strong enough to take down anyone who even looks at you wrong."

 

"That's not what the powers are for. If I have these powers I have to be responsible. I have to help the people who can't help themselves. I have to—"

 

"Oh god, you  _are_  a nerd," says Harley, cutting him off. "I take back everything I just said. You are screaming for someone to bully you." The smirk on Harley's face gives away the joke and Peter laughs.

 

"Tony got me a new Lego set while I was gone," Peter says. "Wanna help me put it together?"

 

"After you finish making those sandwiches," says Harley motioning to all the things scattered across the counter. "I'm starving. How the hell does he own a private jet with no food on it?"

 

"He only stashes snacks on his person ever since Happy went on a diet. He's trying to be considerate or whatever."

 

"So what you're trying to say is you're starving too."

 

"Super metabolism," Peter explains.

 

"Would explain why you're so thin."

 

"I do gymnastics! I'm like mostly muscle mass, what's your excuse?"

 

"I'm a growing 17 year old boy full of angst and hunger...?"

 

Peter snorts a laugh, but starts slapping together sandwiches for the both of them to eat anyway. His head isn't quite so silent.

"You're full of shit, is what it sounds like."

 

"Now you're getting it," Harley responds with his own laugh and Peter knows they're going to get along great. The parts of him scared of the silence and the change and the rejection is finally settling down into a calmer buzz. His family is bigger than him and May and he's more than fine with that. It's really great.

 

Later when Tony comes to help break the ice and drag both teens to the lab he finds them passed out around a replica he can't name on Peter's floor surrounded by leftover Lego blocks, and he smiles. He takes more pictures than absolutely necessary and asks FRIDAY to take a few more. His boy's fell asleep bonding and he doesn't know if he could be any happier.

Pepper's voice however is another happy shock to him as she wraps her arms around his waist. She doesn't mention that it's Sunday yet again. She doesn't say how the last few months worth of Sundays have been miserable. She doesn't mention how she'll want to get married on a Sunday because of all this. And she definitely doesn't mention how on  _this_  Sunday morning she took an at home pregnancy test that read positive. She just says  _I love you_ , because it's Sunday but this time everything is okay- more than okay. This time their family is together.

 

This time Tony won. They all did.


End file.
